A fundamental cause for human problems: - Atheist Nexus2018-05-24T20:26:37Zhttp://atheistnexus.org/forum/topics/a-fundamental-cause-for-human-problems?commentId=2182797%3AComment%3A2265894&x=1&feed=yes&xn_auth=noI personally believe that wha…tag:atheistnexus.org,2013-09-14:2182797:Comment:23016922013-09-14T15:06:57.715ZRonnie Stanleyhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/RonnieStanley
<p>I personally believe that what is stunting everything in our society is our diet. Not only does our food directly affect our heath but, the way we get our food is directly affecting our environment. Monoculture farming, pesticides, and genetic enhancements are eventually going to change us. Look at how quickly children are maturing compared to just 20 years ago. <br></br> Look at how farming practices destroy the land and contaminate the soil. It seems that every time a storm goes through the…</p>
<p>I personally believe that what is stunting everything in our society is our diet. Not only does our food directly affect our heath but, the way we get our food is directly affecting our environment. Monoculture farming, pesticides, and genetic enhancements are eventually going to change us. Look at how quickly children are maturing compared to just 20 years ago. <br/> Look at how farming practices destroy the land and contaminate the soil. It seems that every time a storm goes through the heartland of the US a new levee breaks and floods out whole towns. Other countries have lahare seasons, where torrential rains in the highlands wash away the farms and drag the soil downhill creating massive mudslides.</p>
<p>The pesticides we spray over farms are primarily derived from oil. And, on top of that, they were originally created as chemical warfare agents during WWI. Almost all the current sprayed pesticides are derivatives of DDT.</p>
<p>Finally genetic enhancements, where a seed is altered to bear more fruit, bigger fruit, and fruit that will stay fresh longer. Unfortunately, chemists and biologists didn't stop there. They also wanted to make seeds resistant to bugs so they coat the seeds in pesticides. This process puts chemical elements into the genes of the plants and can pass these genes on by propagation.</p>
<p>I think there is a documentary showing what these pesticides are doing to bee populations. Regardless, these things are speeding up natural progression on the Earth and in our bodies. We may evolve but, then again we may be wiped out by our own overpopulation and greed.</p> And suffering and pain are a…tag:atheistnexus.org,2013-07-08:2182797:Comment:22658942013-07-08T12:34:14.785ZLuarahttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/Luara
<p>And suffering and pain are a necessary part of the evolution of consciousness. They motivate creatures to do things that favor their survival, and creatures have to struggle, sometimes desperately, for survival. </p>
<p>And suffering and pain are a necessary part of the evolution of consciousness. They motivate creatures to do things that favor their survival, and creatures have to struggle, sometimes desperately, for survival. </p> Obviously, I'm not ascribing…tag:atheistnexus.org,2013-07-08:2182797:Comment:22661422013-07-08T12:04:27.021ZLuarahttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/Luara
<p>Obviously, I'm not ascribing agency to the universe. I said it's very hostile <em>in the sense that</em> it's swiftly lethal for life almost everywhere, and our surviving this long in a small patch of it, with giant space rocks randomly bombarding us now and then, is sheer incredible luck. </p>
<p>The universe is a dangerous place, and the process of evolution that allowed us to appear in an exceptional spot, is too slow to adapt to a lot of accidents. And evolution works <em>by means…</em></p>
<p>Obviously, I'm not ascribing agency to the universe. I said it's very hostile <em>in the sense that</em> it's swiftly lethal for life almost everywhere, and our surviving this long in a small patch of it, with giant space rocks randomly bombarding us now and then, is sheer incredible luck. </p>
<p>The universe is a dangerous place, and the process of evolution that allowed us to appear in an exceptional spot, is too slow to adapt to a lot of accidents. And evolution works <em>by means of</em> death and suffering. </p> Dr. Clark, that extremophiles…tag:atheistnexus.org,2013-07-08:2182797:Comment:22660792013-07-08T06:13:15.327Ztom sarbeckhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/TomSarbeck
<p>Dr. Clark, that extremophiles exist in the GOP is a tautology. </p>
<p>Dr. Clark, that extremophiles exist in the GOP is a tautology. </p> Luara, a person who throws a…tag:atheistnexus.org,2013-07-08:2182797:Comment:22660782013-07-08T06:07:04.093Ztom sarbeckhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/TomSarbeck
<p>Luara, a person who throws a rock at me might have hostile intent, but the rock has no hostile intent.</p>
<p>The universe doesn't care whether I, you, or any human lives or dies.</p>
<p>Are we lucky?</p>
<p>A few people in Russia were unlucky several months ago when some space rocks landed.</p>
<p>Will humanity's good luck continue?</p>
<p>If you keep up with the news about huge rocks randomly zipping around in the solar system, you may have heard that in the late 2020s one will come close.…</p>
<p>Luara, a person who throws a rock at me might have hostile intent, but the rock has no hostile intent.</p>
<p>The universe doesn't care whether I, you, or any human lives or dies.</p>
<p>Are we lucky?</p>
<p>A few people in Russia were unlucky several months ago when some space rocks landed.</p>
<p>Will humanity's good luck continue?</p>
<p>If you keep up with the news about huge rocks randomly zipping around in the solar system, you may have heard that in the late 2020s one will come close. If it passes through a "window" astronomers have calculated, it will return in about eleven years and hit.</p>
<p>Which reminds me of the purposes of space and time.</p>
<p>The purpose of space is to keep everything from happening where I am. The purpose of time is to keep it all from happening now.</p>
<p></p> The fact that life developed…tag:atheistnexus.org,2013-07-08:2182797:Comment:22657942013-07-08T00:29:28.027ZDr. Allan H. Clarkhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DrAllanHClark
<p>The fact that life developed only in regions of the universe where conditions make life possible seems more like tautology than anything else.</p>
<p>The fact that life developed only in regions of the universe where conditions make life possible seems more like tautology than anything else.</p> It's very hostile in the sens…tag:atheistnexus.org,2013-07-07:2182797:Comment:22658402013-07-07T17:13:13.824ZLuarahttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/Luara
<p>It's very hostile in the sense that in almost all of it, a human would die in seconds. We are very VERY lucky to be here, with huge rocks randomly zipping around in the solar system. </p>
<p>It's very hostile in the sense that in almost all of it, a human would die in seconds. We are very VERY lucky to be here, with huge rocks randomly zipping around in the solar system. </p> The universe seems neither be…tag:atheistnexus.org,2013-07-07:2182797:Comment:22659232013-07-07T15:57:32.468ZDr. Allan H. Clarkhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/DrAllanHClark
<div class="bq_s"><div class="bq_fq bq_fq_lrg" style="margin: 0px;"><blockquote><p class="bq_fq_a">The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent. —Carl Sagan</p>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<div class="bq_s"><div class="bq_fq bq_fq_lrg" style="margin: 0px;"><blockquote><p class="bq_fq_a">The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent. —Carl Sagan</p>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div> An early criticism of the rig…tag:atheistnexus.org,2013-07-07:2182797:Comment:22656952013-07-07T08:51:10.860Ztom sarbeckhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/TomSarbeck
<p>An early criticism of the right-to-life people was that for them, life began at conception and ended at birth.</p>
<p>Can it be that Alice B Sheldon aka James Tiptree heard that criticism?</p>
<p></p>
<p>An early criticism of the right-to-life people was that for them, life began at conception and ended at birth.</p>
<p>Can it be that Alice B Sheldon aka James Tiptree heard that criticism?</p>
<p></p> Meanwhile nature is cruel.
T…tag:atheistnexus.org,2013-07-07:2182797:Comment:22655882013-07-07T08:39:00.009Ztom sarbeckhttp://atheistnexus.org/profile/TomSarbeck
<blockquote><p>Meanwhile nature is cruel.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There has certainly been some cruelty but I doubt it was nature's doing. I concluded decades ago that Nature is indifferent.</p>
<p></p>
<blockquote><p>Meanwhile nature is cruel.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There has certainly been some cruelty but I doubt it was nature's doing. I concluded decades ago that Nature is indifferent.</p>
<p></p>